President Trump will welcome the leader of El Salvador at the White House next week to tout cooperation between the two nations as the U.S. sends deported migrants they claim are gang members to a massive El Salvadoran prison.
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador will visit the White House next Monday for an “official working visit,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
The two leaders will discuss the use of a supermax prison for the deported migrants, Leavitt said, and how El Salvador’s cooperation with the United States “has become a model for others to work with this administration.
Trump will also host Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on April 17, Leavitt said.
Bukele offered to take in deportees at a massive prison that can hold thousands of detainees, which has been criticized by watchdog groups for alleged human rights violations. That has earned him praise from Trump administration officials as they work to rapidly deport individuals with alleged ties to MS-13 and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The Trump administration’s relationship with the El Salvador has been in the spotlight in recent weeks amid a legal battle after the administration acknowledged it mistakenly deported a Maryland man to El Salvador.
Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily halted a judge’s midnight deadline for the Trump administration to return to Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Abrego Garcia was one of hundreds of migrants deported to the notorious Salvadoran prison last month. The administration has accused him of being connected to MS-13 based on a report from a confidential informant, but Abrego Garcia’s family rejects that he has any gang ties.
